Baptized My Impurest Heart For You
by Crestfallen Vanity
Summary: Hajime was just about to give up on life until Chisa put him in a social experiment that demonstrated how talented students and talentless students react when put in situations together, in other words having the opportunity to meet the 77th class and now must learn the true meaning of absolute hope. It's time for him to see if there is more to life than talent. Despair Arc Rewrite
1. Hello Again, Hope's Peak Academy Pt 1

Disclaimer: The Danganronpa franchise does not belong to me. The content affiliated with this fanfiction belong to Spike Chunsoft and Kazutaka Kodaka, and the cover art belongs to the artist, "Yuu".

* * *

**Chapter One: Hello Again, Hope's Peak Academy Pt. 1**

"What!? Are you serious!?"

Chisa all but expected the always patient and no-nonsense Headmaster to give her a scolding for her inane outbursts, a likely a testament to how little had changed since she graduated. On the contrary, he patiently folded his arms and kept his "_poker face_"—or at least that's what she liked to believe it was.

"...As I was saying," a beat soon followed Chairman Kirigiri's sentence. "I humbly appreciate your consideration of taking on the role of homeroom teacher for the 77th Class on such short notice. With all the faculty busy at the moment, we've been short handed and struggled to find a new teacher that would suffice for the students."

He shot a look of annoyance at Kizakura who'd been casually downing a bottle of liquor on the couch. Chisa rolled her eyes, smiling nevertheless, she honestly hated the smell of alcohol, but was glad to see he hadn't changed a bit since graduation.

"Initially, I had every intention of having Kizakura teach students 77th Class...after some reevaluating...it soon came to my attention that he was in less than _adequate_ position to be teaching our newest batch of children." Headmaster Kirigiri appeared visibly irritated in that sentence and even started shifting looks of annoyance to the hungover fedora-wearing man.

Kizakura lazily picked himself up off the pristine sofa. "Y'know, in my defense...I'm much better at being a talent scout than a homeroom teacher. And those kids were too much of a handful for a normal guy like me. I'm sure Yukizome-chan will run circles around me."

"I have high hopes that you will be able to teach the students of the 77th Class and nurture their talents until their eventual graduation." The Headmaster addressed. Chisa felt like there was a lot of pressure on her to teach the students of this class, she could only assume these kids must have been quite the color bunch if they required a lot of attention as part of this tutelage.

It sounded like her job was going to be quite challenging, and that's what made her the most excited about teaching.

Chisa gave herself some reassuring cheeks smacks to get herself motivated for the task before saluting Headmaster Kirigiri. "Yes, sir! I promise that I won't fail you!"

There wasn't much of a need to hear any further instructions so Chisa decided to prematurely make herself scarce and bolted to her new classroom without even giving it a second thought. Receiving a basic rundown over her teaching role wasn't necessary for a person like her since she prided herself in being prepared for every possible outcome.

Right before opening the front doors Chisa went through a basic rundown of all the appropriate prerequisites needed for teaching the 77th class: a first aid kid, health insurance pamphlets, a machete (_because you never know_), and an information book that she created, taking the liberty of recording all information on her students beforehand, a good teacher must always be prepared.

"Good morning, everyone!" Chisa greeted after putting on a big smile for her new students.

The first of which to approach her was a neighborly boy with frizzy white hair. If her book was correct this was the Ultimate Lucky Student, Komaeda Nagito, he seemingly appeared relatively nice, though for some uncanny reason also didn't look like the most reliable person. "Why, hello there ma'am. Is there something we can help you with?"

"Who the fuck's this broad?" asked the buzz cut kid with a baby face. A quick flip through her handy dandy guide book told her that was the Ultimate Yakuza, Kuzuryu Fuyuhiko—and that he probably wouldn't want to be called such a _derogatory_ nickname.

"This _broad_ is your new homeroom teacher for the 77th Class!" Chisa happily feigned ignorant, grabbing the tips of her skirt and giving an elegant curtsey. "My name is Yukizome Chisa, formerly the Ultimate Housekeeper, pleasure to make your acquaintance!"

"You were an alumni?' a girl innocently questioned. Chisa recognized the beautiful young women with silky blonde hair and white porcelain skin as the Princess of the Novoselic Kingdom, Sonia Nevermind. The fact that someone of such a high social class would be a student in this school was pretty overwhelming.

"Don't go sayin' complicated stuff like that, I don't even know what an _alumni_ is!" the well-endowed and athletic girl retorted back. A few pages skims to her book told her this was obviously the Ultimate Gymnast, Owari Akane.

"You're the the new homeroom teacher?" asked the immensely muscular man dressed in a tracksuit with a chain around his neck, if the book was correct than this was the Ultimate Team Manager, Nidai Nekomaru. Maybe was vertigo, but Chisa was _positive_ that she saw blue electricity coming from Nidai's eyes.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! What kind of fortuitous bait and switch is this!? A twist like this would make M. Night Shyamalan lose his job in ten seconds flat!" shrieked another girl. From what Chisa read in the book, the high spirited one with multicolored black hair and horns was none other than the Ultimate Musician, Mioda Ibuki.

"W-What about Kizakura-sensei? Wasn't he meant to be our teacher?" peeped a girl with long choppy purple hair and a beauty mark under her eye. That level of taciturnity could only belong to the Ultimate Nurse, Tsumiki Mikan.

"No need to worry about Kizakura-sensei, as a matter of fact, he's nursing a bad hangover as we speak and gave me his blessing to become the new teacher!" Chisa grinned.

"Geez! Why can't guys' ever focus on what's most important?" the assertive girl with short red hair and a digital camera around her neck sighed. If she were correct, this was the Ultimate Photographer, Koizumi Mahiru.

"Oooh! This bug looks like she'll be a fun one to squish!" the blonde little girl in the furisode laughed, promptly beginning to crack her petite knuckles. "Hmmm...I wonder what'll go first. Her social life? Her health? Her sanity?"

According to Chisa's book, this little one was the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, Saionji Hiyoko, therefore she was already expecting this behavior.

"How about all of the above?" the housekeeper asked, whipping out a bunch of pamphlets from her pocket. "I've already been loaded with a ton of health insurance!"

"Well now, replacing a shabby alcoholic with a bewitching maid, I can't say I'm too disappointed~_rrreow_." smirked the short and plump boy in the chef uniform who was undeniably the Ultimate Cook, Hanamura Teruteru. Chisa would have to make a mental note to wash his mouth out with soap sometime later.

"I don't want to impede on your usual routine, so why don't you guys start the day off by telling me what Kizakura-sensei would usually do right about now?" Chisa smiled with hands firmly placed on her hands.

"We couldn't properly answer, as we too don't know either." said the girl with silver hair in braided twintails and glasses. An aloofness to this calibre could only belong to the Ultimate Swordswoman, Pekoyama Peko.

"That much would be difficult to determine, as attending classes don't hinder students from graduating in this academy." said the heavy set man with dirty blonde hair, glasses, and a refined white suit was patently the esteemed Togami Byakuya, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny. "Of course, as an academic instructor that's something you were likely already aware of."

"Inexcusable!" Chisa blurted out, retrieving the aforementioned machete from her holster and slamming it down on someone's desk causing them to shriek out loud. "You guys are at the peak of your adolescence, now should be the time that you start making precious school memories!"

"What the FUCK, are you trying to kill me!?" the boy hysterically cried out while making an expression that words couldn't even begin to describe. If Chisa's book was anything to go by, then the person with braided pink hair and sharp teeth must have been the Ultimate Mechanic, Soda Kazuichi.

Chisa sighed. True to what Kizakura had mentioned before, they were palpably quite the color bunch and seemed like they were in desperate need of guidance. Most of them didn't really see what was on board with the idea of creating happy school memories as part of their youth, something that she utterly refused to accept, as it was a crucial part of their adolescence to make these the best times of their life, she could _certainly_ never forget any of the cherished memories she made during high school.

First things first, her top priority should be to familiarize herself with the fourteen students of the classroom and what their lives were like before enrolling, that way they could save the trouble of tedious introductions, the good thing about that was her book was already filled to the brim with records on all her students which makes things easier.

* * *

_"Dear Komaeda Nagito—We recently held a lottery to select one ordinary student to attend our school. As a result, you have been selected as the Ultimate Lucky Student and hope to join us this semester"_

Nagito already possessed quite the extensive amount of knowledge when it came to the prestigious and esteemed school of Hope's Peak Academy. For him it was bordering that of an unhealthy obsession, and he found himself doing more research on the school than an average person would.

That was only a given, after all, how could he not appreciate a school that dedicates itself to helping hope shine brightly?

The idea of receiving an acceptance letter to such an admirable school was the most baffling thing in the world to him. Why would the academy ever consider allowing scum like him into their school? He felt it was probably common knowledge that a _lame_ talent like Ultimate Lucky Student couldn't even begin to compare to the symbols of hope that would better represent the school in every possible way.

He knew that something like this could simply be ignored, therefore, he gave his chauffeur a call and went on his merry way to the prestigious academy itself. Upon stepping foot into the Headmaster's office, Nagito promptly put the acceptance letter on his desk and followed up with an earnest bow.

A rather carefree, yet pragmatic smile coerced its way on Nagito's pale face. "Headmaster Kirigiri. While I'm deeply flattered that you would give someone like me the time of day, let alone accept me into your school, I'm afraid that I'll have to humbly decline your offer."

"Yikes! That's not something you hear everyday." Kizakura quipped.

Nagito followed up with wretched smile, _pitifully_ staring at his own palm, meticulously. "Your request was thoughtful, but I don't believe someone like me deserves to be in the same class of the Ultimates. A felony like that would be an insult to the wonderful talent they were gifted with since birth."

The Headmaster was kind enough not to provide any disgust or disapproval towards Nagito's behavior, which was actually one of the rare occasions that he ever witnessed something like that. "Komaeda-kun, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to strongly disagree with your point of view."

Nagito held his smile. "May I ask why?"

"Being chosen to attend our school by lottery or having luck as your Ultimate talent is not something to deride, you would not be less of a student in comparison to your peers." The Headmaster informed. "It doesn't take away from your ability to excel at that talent...in fact luck is one of the most extraordinary talents that we have studied."

_Absolute Hope._

The frizzy haired teen smiled and raised a bony hand, "Perhaps you're right, Headmaster Kirigiri. In that case, I will join this semester!"

* * *

_"Dear Kuzuryuu Fuyuhiko—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Yakuza."_

The hardest part about the acceptance letter was Fuyuhiko's struggles trying to even read the _fucking_ letter because of all the arguments that had been going on between his parents downstairs for a good half hour. If things weren't already bad enough, those two bastards went from screaming to throwing wine glasses and chairs.

And it may have just been his imagination or something, but Fuyuhiko could have sworn he heard a window smash too.

Those were the least of his problems, the whole concept of being enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy was truly bizarre to him in general. Fuyuhiko genuinely wondered why he was ever accepted into such a prestigious over his own sister, practically everyone in the Kuzuryuu Clan could unanimously agree that she was destined to achieve great things in life.

His thoughts of uncertainty were interrupted upon hearing a knock on the door. His initial thought was "shit" or something of the sort, only assuming that his parents were on the other side of the door with some half-assed congratulations on being accepted into a school that he cared nothing about.

Only it wasn't either of his parents, instead it was his designated hitwoman. The collected women proceeded with her usual respectful bow. "Good evening, Young Master, I hope that I'm not disturbing you right now."

Fuyuhiko raised an eyebrow. "What're you doing here."

"I received information from the Oyabun about your acceptance into the school of Hope's Peak Academy, I had been informed that you were given the title of the Ultimate Yakuza, correct?" the Hitwoman asked.

He sighed. "Guess the cat's out of the bag on that one. Figures that old bastard wouldn't keep his mouth shut."

"I say this because I have more information to tell you, I too was accepted into the school," the Hitwoman informed. "Earlier I received a letter as well for the title of Ultimate Swordswoman."

"Is that so?" Fuyuhiko decided to hold his tongue about her last comment, but in reality he was secretly proud of the hitwoman for being enrolled in the school since her talent was remarkable and deserving of the school.

She nodded. "That is not the sole reason I came here. Earlier, I was notified by my sensei that you would be enrolling in Hope's Peak Academy as well under the title of Ultimate Yakuza."

"That is not the sole reason I came here. I was notified by my sensei for the good of the Kuzuryu Clan that I should accompany you. Young Master I promise that I will guard you with my life—" the hitwoman said before getting interrupted.

"Enough!" Fuyuhiko barked. "I already told you! I don't care about any of that fucking tool stuff! I don't need a tool!"

The blonde sympathetically rested a hand to his hip, "Look, what I'm trying to say is, once we enroll in Hope's Peak Academy, let's drop the whole yakuza stuff and just act like regular high schools students. Just pretend we don't even know each other, alright?"

The Hitwoman responded in the only way she had been trained to do: with elegant manners and perfect posture, she respectfully bowed before Fuyuhiko. "I understand, Young Master, as you wish."

* * *

_"Dear Owari Akane—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Gymnast."_

Receiving a letter in the mail was the literal definition of an unrenowned experience for Akane, their families cobwebbed mailbox was always filled with ridiculous amounts of bills and love letters from her mom's boyfriends, but what's the big deal. Wasn't that stuff totally normal?

For that reason alone, Akane never expected to get a letter in the mail from Hope's Peak Academy. Of course, there were a ton of big words in the letter that she had never heard before like "scouting", which she assumed must have been a type of food or something.

Fortunate to her, all of her siblings gathered around and Akane's little stepsister was really skilled at reading. What was the girls name again? Yuri? Yuki? Yumi? It was such a struggle to remember the names of all the new little ones since she got a new brother or sister practically every year by this point.

Her stepsister was nice enough to read the letter in her place and had a big smile on her face after reading it. "Onee-chan! This is great! You've just been accepted into Hope's Peak Academy!"

Another one of her siblings—infamous for his spiked up hair and nose bandage—one of the many whose names she forgot, probably Kai or something—expressed excitement for his sister as well. "Alright! Awesome job, sis! You got into that school! We're gonna be rich!"

"Hm...rich?" Akane blinked. "What's money gotta do with it?"

"You mean you didn't know?" her brother excitedly asked. "Sis, they say that anybody who graduates from Hope's Peak will set for life, forever! That means we're never gonna have to worry about being broke again!"

If Akane said that she completely understood everything they were talking about, then she would be a liar. Most of the stuff about "scouting" and "cultivating" really didn't make a whole lot of sense to her. What really caught her eye the most was talking about money and success, which were things that she didn't really care too much about.

But if her gut was right, which it always was, then Akane should really enter this school-thing if it means that she'll have a shot at making some money. There was nothing more important to her that making sure that all of her brothers and sisters were safe.

Nothing else in the world mattered to her—not a thing.

* * *

_"Dear Sonia Nevermind—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Princess."_

What began as seemingly just another normal day in the Utero Private School soon escalated into something that none of the students would have imagined. Sonia was right in the middle of her general studies of solving one half divided by two pi times the variable of "I" and how it's equivalent to the square root of eighty-four to the power of two times five (which were a breeze for her) when something completely unexpected happened.

A fanfare started to play and immediately Sonia knew that it was targeted towards her, after all who else would it be for? Ahead of time she predicted it was likely just another invitation to dinner with Prime Minister of the Cobain Kingdom so her father could force her into an arranged marriage with the prince as part of some contrived plan to have both countries merge together.

Or the likelihood of making yet another press statement about whether or not the Novoselic Kingdom will be going into war against the Bleach Kingdom after a Novoselic soldier reportedly shot a rival soldier.

As the trumpets played like they always did, the royal announcer opened up his scroll and read aloud, "Hear ye, hear ye! Citizens of the beautiful Novoselic Kingdom! We are honored to announce that our very own Princess has been invited to attend the school of Hope's Peak Academy in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan."

Her fellow classmates started to cheer, albeit half-heartedly with Sonia even predicting this circumstance was acutely scripted and these students were likely paid to act excited. Not that she really cared since it had been her dream to finally enroll in Hope's Peak Academy for years and saw it as the perfect opportunity to home in on her love for Japan.

Under these circumstances it was only customary that the princess to humbly accept the thoughtful offer before presenting her citizens with a speech on how the academy will benefit her in someday becoming queen—well, except for the fact that these were not regular circumstances.

Soft tears poured from her blue eyes and she accidentally let out an innocent shriek of excitement. Mother and Father would likely be disappointed in their daughter had displayed an emotion such as crying in a public place, but at the minute she could care less.

"I cannot believe this! Is it really true!?" the fair princess alarmingly gasped. "I have really been accepted!?"

Her royal adviser was there as well and made sure to keep her in check. "Your Highness, please compose yourself. It is not becoming of a Princess to display severe acts of folly in the presence of your country."

Sonia realized as well and a handkerchief to wipe the rest of her tears, "My apologize. It is just that Hope's Peak Academy was a school that I have admired for many years and never imagined to have received an invitation."

Of all the places that Sonia had learned about through her knowledge of Japanese culture, one place that had always caught her eyes was Hope's Peak Academy, not for the reason that someone would normally think.

Success could not matter to someone who was born into success simply because of her bloodline, instead she was interested in finally having the opportunity to make friends that were her own age and be treated as an equal instead of a superior figure.

* * *

_"Dear Soda Kazuichi—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Mechanic."_

The anxiety that came from getting the invitation letter in the mail was like trying to enjoy a last meal before an execution. As soon as Kazuichi's old man finds out that he was accepted into such a prestigious school with a potentially high tuition fee like Hope's Peak Academy, he was going to beat the crap out of him for sure.

Sure, Kazuichi's father was mad when he began skipping school to avoid field trips—or that time he stole money from the cash register to buy pink or contact lenses—or even that other time he began to start wearing yellow jumpsuits to school, but this time he would be furious and finally be pushed over the limit.

After reading the acceptance letter, Kazuichi's old man responded by giving his son a hard smack on the back, soon followed by an arbitrarily affectionate headlock. "Well done, knucklehead! Guess you were good for something after all!"

For most people, those gestures would be classified as harsh or even child abuse to say the least, though Kazuichi was surprised to see his father display even the slightest bit of affection considering how he normally behaves. Come to think of it, Kazuichi couldn't even remember the last time his father even hugged him.

"Hey Pop, you're not mad about this?" Kazuichi asked nervously. A quivering smile was drawn to his face after being in such a state of shock towards his father's affections. "I mean, the school's probably got huge tuition fees and the bike shop hasn't been doing so well these days either."

"No! Haven't you heard about the graduation guarantee the school makes?" his dad answers and roughly releases him from the headlock. "The whole school is tuition free! All you gotta do is graduate and you'll be set for life! It's like instant gratification!"

Kazuichi's dad delivered one final celebratory punch to the air. "I've struck gold! This will be the perfect chance to finally quit the bicycle business and get the hell out of this backwater dump we live in. I'm gonna be rich!"

Usually Kazuichi would be angered that his father only cared about his enrollment in school to help with his financial crisis in the bicycle shop, even so, part of him felt pretty psyched about the school as well.

Maybe all of his childhood dreams actually had the chance of coming true? Building a rocketship? Having genuine friends? Creating that awesome bike he used to dream about?

Perhaps even finding the _ideal_ woman of his dreams—a gorgeous blonde girlfriend like he thought about since childhood.

* * *

_"Dear Anonymous—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Imposter."_

Everytime Byakuya looked at himself in the mirror he always saw an empty canvas. Even though "he" was the rich and famous heir to the Togami Coorperation, destined to accomplish great things in the world, it never felt that way to him because "he" never had a true purpose in life.

Usually during a momentous moment like this, it was expected that families would commemorate the events of their child's acceptance into the school with open arms—Byakuya was much different in that circumstance. It's not like he had any friends or relatives to help him celebrate such an important moment in his life or anything. He could only assume that his past was partially to blame for such a depressing outcome.

The day Byakuya first received the school invitation, he didn't waste any time before heading straight to the academy itself to consult the Headmaster about his flawed omission. "Headmaster, would you mind telling me why I was accepted in such a school?"

Headmaster Kirigiri feigned ignorance and amusingly raised an eyebrow. "This is quite unexpected. I never would have thought that the esteemed heir to the Togami Corporation would feel any shed of hesitance by this acception."

"I'd advise you not to misinterpret me." Byakuya dismissed before dejectedly crossing his arms. "I'm merely curious on if someone in this school would actually take a minute to acknowledge the existence of a man such as myself."

The Headmaster faintly smiled. "I see, that is quite understandable when considering your past. In any case Togami-kun, I shall be the first to inform you that your talent is very much welcomed in Hope's Peak Academy."

The Ultimate Affluent Progeny firmly adjusted his glasses and grew a condescending smirk. "Very well, as the _Heir of the Togami Cooperation_ I shall graduate this class with flying colors."

The Headmaster calmly nodded. "As you wish. Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy, Togami-kun."

* * *

_"Dear Hanamura Teruteru—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Cook."_

Teruteru had some many conflicted feelings about the idea of being accepted into Hope's Peak Academy and had his instances of declining the offer, he knew about the promise of instant gratification to anyone who graduated and how all students would be guaranteed to be set for life, but frivolous things like that never really mattered to him, there was only one thing that he truly considered more important than anything in the world — looking after the Hanamura Dinner with Momma.

After moments of surreptitiously trying to hide the acceptance letter from her, Momma eventual found the letter while cleaning up his bedroom, while she may look like a slow women at first glance, it was difficult to try and pull the wool over her eyes.

He tried telling her that enrolling into the academy would be a mistake, he couldn't trust his foolish siblings to run the diner all by themselves and Momma's onset diabetes that had started to affect her health, but she just wouldn't budge and was insistent that he took this opportunity.

"Momma, you don't have to work too hard!" Teruteru assured her. "What if you collapse again, while I'm gone!?"

"...I'll be fine. Moms are strong." Momma replied with a confident and nurturing smile. She had been saying that same thing since childhood, it wasn't the first potentially wouldn't be the last occasion either, but it still didn't make him feel any better despite that. "I won't lose to some illness."

Teruteru laughed. "I know that already."

Again, he felt bad about leaving everything Momma while he was gone, but attending Hope's Peak Academy was a good thing and graduating meant that they could broaden the dinner.

Yes, this definitely wouldn't be the last time he saw Momma. He promised that.

* * *

_"Dear Koizumi Mahiru—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Photographer."_

The fact that Mahiru was able to find this letter in the first place since it was piled up in a bunch of junk in the family room was a miracle in itself.

As usual, that adversity was courtesy of none other than her own father, Shinya Koizumi, the man whom she could charitably claim without the shadow of a doubt was the "laziest man alive".

Even coming home from school everyday was a real drag since he was always content on transforming every room he entered a total pigsy from the empty bottles of beer and whisky (which she hated the smell of) that spoiled the mildewed rug to the half-eaten cups of ramen on table.

It was a pain, to say the least. If he was going to spend his time lazing around the house, the least he could do is eat something healthier.

Months prior, when Kizakura said he was a representative from Hope's Peak Academy and was interested in Mahiru's talent, she was almost certain he was some kind of creep. While she did always in photography awards in her school, did that really mean anything?

The very instant that her mom learned that Mahiru been accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, she called to have her photography trip to Syria postponed and went right home to congratulate her daughter.

She'd always been quite the emotional woman and pulled her into a big hug only after crying tears of joy. "Mahiru-chan, I'm so proud of you! The academy must have recognized your photography prowess!"

A tint of pink dusted across Mahiru's cheeks in modesty. "No. My photography skills aren't nearly as good as yours Mom. I don't think a talent like that would even be useful in their school, maybe I should just decline?"

"Don't waste your time with that snobby rich kid school, Mahiru! Schools are useless and they don't even guarantee success." Her father let out a distasteful groan. That was tough talk for someone who dropped out of high school.

"You think so?" she stepped back in self doubt.

"How could you say something so insensitive to your own daughter?" Her mother quickly snapped at her husband. She grabbed Mahiru's shoulders reassuringly and said, "Don't listen to your father.

Mahiru blushed and nodded. "Thank you."

* * *

_"Dear Pekoyama Peko—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Swordswoman."_

Based on the extent of Peko's knowledge of her life, she couldn't remember the last time she ever received a single letter in her life, then again, it wasn't like she could even remember the first time getting one either. It was essentially a mundane and unorthodox topic that couldn't even reach her vocabulary.

That all changed after her kendo instructor appeared one day giving her the envelope that stated she was accepted into Hope's Peak Academy. After what happened before, Peko felt she should've known that Kizakura was actually a legitimate talent scout and not some predator who was mistaking her for some anime cosplayer, again.

"Pekoyama-san," the sensei gravely addressed her. "As you should already be aware now, Hope's Peak Academy is a prestigious and elite high school that advocates talent and promises all individuals who graduate immense success for life."

Success for life? Peko merely shrugged that idea off. Why would something so _trivial_ matter to a tool like her anyway? Her one purpose in life had already been etched since infancy; serve the Young Master for the remainder of her existence. For that reason alone, why would she need a school life this?

Peko was close to declining. Until the sensei began speaking once more, Peko improved her informal postures and listened carefully. "Pekoyama-san, do you know why I'm bringing up this letter all of a sudden?"

"No, I do not." Peko answered.

"As you have received your invitation letter, the Young Master has simultaneously received a letter to Hope's Peak Academy as well," Sensei explained. Peko gasped a little when she heard this, showing even the smallest hint of emotion was frowned upon while under tutelage, so she quickly recovered and went back to her aloofness.

The sensei vaguely caught a glimpse of her shock, and yet decided not to respond. "At the credulous age of seventeen, adulthood is imminent for the Young Master. In spite of that, the Oyabun is still uncertain that he will be able to graduate and uphold the Kuzuryu Clan. He's ordered that you simultaneously attend the school and protect him with your life at all costs."

Peko obliged and gave her instructor a respectful bow like she normally would. A tool like her wasn't really given the opportunity to think independently or make decisions on her own, and if something terrible happened to her Young Master, she could never live with herself. "...Yes Sensei, I understand."

* * *

_"Dear Mioda Ibuki—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Musician."_

"_Yahooooo!_" were the first words to escape from Ibuki's mouth when she found the acceptance letter in her mailbox, she hardly even knew anything about Hope's Peak Academy and was now being told about the possibility of enrolling in such a prestigious school. The sheer excitement from this was making her uncontrollably froth from the mouth.

Usually a person would feel nervous about but Ibuki was feeling more excited than ever, which naturally meant that she was feeling equally hungry as well. Wait, why was she always hungry when excited? Why was she always excited when hungry?

These were legitimate questions.

Her first priority was to alert all of her fellow members of Black Cherry about this big break, surely this would be the perfect opportunity to branch out and broaden the scope of their light music band and Ibuki already had tons of ideas.

Except the bad news about that was they weren't exactly thrilled about things like she was. The lead bassist of the band—Yoko—was forced to break the news. "Mioda-san, we understand that you're excited about enrolling in Hope's Peak Academy, but can you please listen to us?"

"Ibuki hears you loud and clear!" the giddy musician replied with a thumbs up. "She's just really excited about all the opportunities that Black Cherry is going to have now!"

The other bandmates all looked at each other with conflicted thoughts and were obviously trying to tell her something without trying to hurt her feelings. Ibuki caught on and tried to keep her mouth shut regardless.

Yoko was really trying her best to be nice. "But we want to—"

"And not only that think about all of the places that Ibuki will be able to take Black Cherry on tour once they take off! Iceland! Greenland! Finland! Scotland! The Netherlands!" Ibuki started eagerly naming off with each finger. "That's so many lands! I wonder if that means—!"

"We're kicking you out of the band!"

Ibuki froze. "What…?"

The keyboard player, Minako, walked over to place her hands on Ibuki's shoulders. "Mioda-san, we're really sorry. But we've done a lot of thinking and made an executive decision to remove you from the band."

"But what for?" Ibuki desperately asked.

"The thing is...we haven't really appreciated the direction that you've taken Black Cherry. We're supposed to be a light music band but you've been diverting it into a heavy metal band." Yoko admitted. "We just think...maybe it's better for everyone if you joined a different band."

"Sorry Mioda-san. Please don't be mad at us." Satomi, the lead drummer, apologized.

Ibuki presented her bandmates with toothy grin. "What's to be mad about? Ibuki completely understands that bands can have differences."

"And you're not bothered by this?" Minako asked.

"Why would Ibuki be bothered by this?" the anything-but light music club members gave them a thumbs up. "Now she has the opportunity to spread her music abroad!"

The minute her _former_ bandmates left Ibuki cried. Of course the truth of that all was that Ibuki was upset. How could she not be? She loved being a member of the Black Cherry band and always believed that her four bandmates were closer than the average friend could be.

Maybe that wasn't so true?

* * *

_"Dear Saionji Hiyoko—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Traditional Dancer."_

When Hiyoko first received her invitation from Hope's Peak Academy, she'd been right in the middle of practicing her Nihon Buyō for an upcoming dance recital. Her first reaction was beyond elation to the point that she dropped her fan and began childishly waving her invitation around until it was rudely snatched out of her hands by some adult.

Well—not just any adult. It was her good for nothing hag of a grandmother who grabbed the letter like she owned it.

"Hey give that back you hag!" Hiyoko growled and attempted to reach for it, cursing herself for never reaching a proper growth spurt like the rest of her high school classmates. "That's mine! Get your dirty hands off it!"

The elderly woman retracted the envelope, "In due time, but as of now this letter belongs to me. There are a few things we need to discuss."

"Give that back...that's my letter...waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Hiyoko instantly bursts into tears.

Her grandmother rolled her eyes. "Those crocodile tears aren't going to work anymore."

Great, she was forced to make her eyes water for nothing. Hiyoko used her kimono sleeve to wipe her fake tears and gave her grandmother the stink eye. "Those would have worked on Dad...now what do you want?"

The Hag cleared her throat and put the envelope behind her back to prevent Hiyoko from trying to steal it. "I am permitting you to enter Hope's Peak Academy, but only under one condition...you must uphold the Saionji Clan at all costs."

Hiyoko was just about to continue happily celebrating the new tutelage before her grandmother stopped again. "I know already! You tell me everyday!"

"Yes, but this could be the most important thing you have done as a traditional dancer. Hope's Peak Academy is a prestigious school full of talent scouts and opportunities for success." Hag reminded her. "It's crucial that you do everything that you were prepared for so that the Saionji Clan may continue to thrive."

She was getting sick and tired of her pathetic excuse for a grandmother constantly pestering her everyday about how to uphold the Saionji Clan. Hiyoko cared way more about the clan than and understood that when she looked back she made the entirety of Japan look bad, or at least that's what her grandmother _always_ taught her.

In the eyes Hiyoko the best part about transferring to this school was that she would never have to see her hag grandmother again.

The two parted ways by performing mutual akanbe gestures at each other. The apples don't fall far from the tree and these two visibly still hated each other even despite the similarities the two shared.

* * *

_"Dear Tsumiki Mikan—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Nurse."_

Things seemed like an inherently normal evening in Lapis Lazuli Girl's High School, except for the fact that Mikan had to pay a big debt after her sloppy and reckless attempt at shoplifting a carton of cigarettes and beer from the local convenience store.

She didn't really care about any of that stuff and even hated the smell of nicotine. It was a request from her delinquent classmates who urged a "bitchlet" like her should do their dirty work for them to avoid them getting into any trouble.

As Mikan was about to deliver the box of goods to her classmates she accidentally slipped on nothing and into a risqué pose and spilled the beer all over her clothes.

The lead delinquent was the first to step forward and express her anger, "Way to go! You dropped everything! F.Y.I we only have limited time before the teachers see us doing this and you blew it!"

"How embarrassing! I-I'm sorry, please forgive me!" the shriveled hair nurse cried out. The delinquents weren't exactly planning to help her off the ground and forced the girl to pick herself up without any assistance.

In the corner of her eye the lead delinquent some peculiar envelope that appeared to be a shield with a scepter and strange lighting bolt in the design and crown above. The envelope had fallen out of Mikan's apron when she slipped and the delinquent decided to grab it for herself.

Her popped open the envelope and skimmed through the letter inside. "No...frickin...way," she muttered as her other delinquent friends gathered around her to read. "She got accepted into the prestigious Hope's Peak Academy school!"

"Oh, so what now?" another of the delinquent asked. "Does that mean you think you're better than us now?"

"Think your all that just because you got enrolled in some peppy rich skid school?" yet another one of them started to growl.

"N-No, I—!" Mikan _was_ about to defend before the delinquent tossed the envelope and letter back onto the ground and proceeded to storm off.

"Forget it! Let's just get out of here," The delinquent huffed and walked away in anger. "There's no point in talking to someone if they're associated with that snobby school."

Why were they getting so mad all of a sudden. That was farthest from the truth as possible, Mikan never once assumed that she is better than anyone else, in fact she always conceived the exact opposite when taking her track record into account and always thought that everyone around her were much better.

She knew of Hope's Peak Academy before, however she never actually imagined getting accepted into a school like that and as the Ultimate Nurse no less. Then again, if she _were_ to enroll in this school it would give her the perfect opportunity to perfect her craft: she was always viewed as being exceptionally well at taking care of others and maybe have the opportunity to help save lives.

...also _maybe_ meet someone who could love and forgive her…

..._maybe?_

* * *

_"Dear Nidai Nekomaru—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Team Manager."_

Around the time Nekomaru first received an acceptance letter to the school it was a culture shock. Like just about high school student in the country, he already _thoroughly_ knew about Hope's Peak and the graduation promises that came with it, in the past even recalled training a few athletes that were striving to be accepted into the school just to achieve that success.

The strangest aspect about all of this was that Nekomaru was chosen as opposed to one of his athletes he trained, it felt rather unprecedented for a coach to be the coach to be commended for their talents as opposed to the actual athlete.

Nekomaru had to think long and hard about his decision on attending this school or not. His schedule was already booked with a number of different jobs as team manager: helping a middle school student win a triathlon, managing a rugby team, and mentoring a quarterback for an upcoming football game.

Needless to say, there was just far too much for him to do. He was just about dead set on humbly declining the kind offer from Hope's Peak Academy until one day his whole baseball team approached him on his decision.

He trained his team be tough and always speak their mind, so they didn't beat around the bush on their thoughts. The quarterback approached him and flat out said, "Coach Nidai. You have to go to that school."

The center nodded as well. "We know all about Hope's Peak Academy and know that opportunities like this only come around once in a lifetime."

"We'll be fine! Trust us!" The running back assured their manager. "You taught us everything we need to know to win this game."

This was the first time they ever genuinely felt so confident about this, and who was Nekomaru to dismiss their passion? The only real problem standing in his way was that he was overbooked with other duties as a team manager and struggled to figure out how he could manage them all.

Or maybe he was just making excuses? In the heat of the moment all he could start thinking about was Daisuke and the times they spend together in the hospital. They both suffered from aortic stenosis but it was increasingly obvious that Daisuke was the stronger man because of his ability to pull through those challenges.

He refused to let Daisuke down and recalled that if he could pull through those challenges then Nekomaru could do the same.

The muscular team manager placed a hand to his head and laughed, "Hahaha, okay then. If you guys really want me to go to this school then I'll make you proud."

"Yeah! Way to go couch!" one of the team members cheered.

Nekomaru stood straight up and pointed his finger to the entire team. "But I want you all to show some _spirit_ for your team! I wanna see you guys push your body to its limits! Fifty pushups! Fifty sit ups! Fifty squats! Fifty planks!"

It went without saying that his team weren't exactly excited for the "homework" that Nekomaru was leaving them with, they were proud of their coach nonetheless and celebrated that night with gatorade showers and fireworks.

* * *

_"Dear Tanaka Gundham—we of Hope's Peak Academy are proud to announce that you have been scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join us as the Ultimate Breeder."_

It was around the time that Gundham had finished choking down another plate of traditional Japanese curry that he finally got around to reading his acceptance. To the general consensus, it's regarded to be a common household nourishment that even the _Almighty Cthulu_ who pledges to unleash true Hell on the multiverse would find itself thoroughly enjoying.

A statement that found itself menacingly redundant in this household. In this particular instance, the Nurturing One—or mother as some mortals are inclined to refer to their birth provider as—is prone to conjuring up a cataclysmic poison that forces its epicure to suffer their fate in silence.

It was not that Tanaka Haman was particularly a bad mother, on the contrary actually, but her radiant smile made it impossible to turn down her cooking no matter how disgusting it was.

Promptly after reading the invitation, Gundham was met with the arms of the Nurturing One around his in some sort of pertinent and affectionate hug. It seemed absurd that this woman would even consider displaying physical affection to him without being turned into ash by his power after coming in contact with him. "Gundham-kun! You really were accepted into the school! Congratulations, I'm so proud of you!"

He vexedly averted his gaze from the acceptance letter altogether. "Hope's Peak Academy? What a waste to make such folly pacts with mere commoners."

His mother looked to him in concern. "What's the matter are you not excited to be accepted into the school? It would be such a great opportunity."

"Of course not," Gundham denied. "If I were to leave the comfort of my own realm to venture to this Hope's Peak Academy, the state of my Twelve Zodiac Generals would fall to shambles immediately, they would never stand the chance of fulfilling their destiny of creating the Tanaka Empire."

The Nurturing One was no fool and could clearly understand what he was talking about, she softly smiled in a way only a mother could. "You're worried about your pets aren't you? You don't have to worry about a thing Gundham-kun, I'll take care of all your pets while your off."

Gundham embarrassingly grabs a part of his long purple scarf and uses it to conceal the fact that his face was blushing a deep red. "Yes, thank you, Mother."

* * *

Chisa finally finished the last page of her book and felt that she gained a better understanding of the fourteen students and. She slammed the book to gain the attention of all of her impatient students, "Okie doke, everybody! I'm up to date with all of you and am ready to get things underway."

Her students couldn't exactly share the same enthusiasm as her after being forced to watch her flip through every single page. Kuzuryu groaned and crossed his arms, "About fucking time. How much longer were you gonna keep reading that damn book?"

"Does that mean we can finally start this class and—" Soda wasn't even given the chance to finish his sentence.

"Wait just a minute!" Chisa interrupted the rest of the class before they could say anything more. "False alarm, turns out that I accidentally skipped over a page while I was reading. My bad!"

"Geez, what now!?" Saionji whined. "I thought we were already done with this!"

Chisa skimmed through the last page and made sure to get a good understanding of the final student. "It looks like this last student isn't even in the classroom. Have any of you guys heard of a girl known as the Ultimate Gamer? One, Nanami Chiaki?"

"Chiaki-chan?" Mahiru questioned. "That name doesn't sound too familiar, whoever she is, I haven't seen her attend a single class here."

"Unless...can it be!?" Tanaka rose from his seat in shock. "Is it possible this Nanami is potentially the reincarnated dark deity capable of turning mortals into stone upon laying eyes on them. The she-devil that I have spent my entire existence trying to slay!?'

Sonia tilted her head in innocence. "I did not know a creature like that truly existed."

"Nanami's probably just one of those creepy shut ins who shrivels up when being exposed to sunlight. Hell, she's probably even worse than that disgusting piece of pigshit over there." Saionji said, flicking her thumb over to Tsumiki.

The Ultimate Nurse was clearly taken aback. "Waaah! I'm s-sorry for being pigshit!"

"Close your mouth, you're already becoming an eyesore." Togami dismissed in a mere second. "If this supposed Nanami actually exists, we are most likely to find her somewhere on campus. Of course, I don't intend on assisting you in that excursion."

"Of course. I had a feeling you rotten oranges wouldn't be up for the task, which is why I've decided to scout out this Nanami-san myself." Chisa affirmed. "If she wants to be elusive then I'll be elusive-er!"

"Did she just call us...rotten oranges?" Owari gasped.

"I have to appreciate Yukizome-sensei's attitude, a regular teacher would have simply marked Nanami-san as absent and went on with the day," Komaeda happily acknowledged and seemed to miss the fact that their teacher was kind of a lunatic. "I wouldn't have expected less from a former Hope's Peak student."

"Is your fucking obsequiousness gonna be a problem for the rest of the semester?" Kuzuryu groaned.

"You better not have been expecting us to come along with you!" Saionji hissed and sat back onto her seat without hesitation.

"Absolutely not!" Chisa grinned and place both hands to her hips. "What kind of teacher would I be if I simply ignored one of my students absences even if its the last thing I do!"

* * *

Author's Note: Hello readers, and thank you for reading this first chapter. I hope you enjoyed what you've read so far because I was really excited about finally publishing this.

For the past few years I've been working on a DR3 reimagined project and after some day I've finally decided to release this part. As shown in the chapter itself there are some noteworthy differences compared to the canon like for example: Ultimate Imposter being Byakuya instead of Ryota.

At this point, there's not much about DR3 that hasn't already been said, so I'll say that with this series I'm hoping to have the flesh out more of the DR2 kids and get more insight on what made them become the Remnants of Despair.

This first chapter itself was probably the most ambitious thing I've written. I originally thought about simply re-writing the "Chisa hunts down students" plot, but I figured that I could go even bigger, by showing the events that lead up to all members of Class 77 being enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy and some small insight on their backstories.


	2. Hello Again, Hope's Peak Academy Pt 2

**Chapter One: Hello Again, Hope's Peak Academy Pt. 2**

If you were to narrow down the two dominant characters that Hinata Hajime felt described himself above all: being a relatively normal high school student who couldn't really stand out compared to the rest and his admiration for Hope's Peak Academy. Those two traits played off each other so well that he considered those to be the only core characteristics about him.

And that only made his rejection letter from the school he adored since childhood to be such a punch to the gut.

That letter was the physical representation of disappointment, he must have read that rejection letter so many times that he could actually recite the entire thing down to a tee.

_"Dear Hinata Hajime—we of Hope's Peak Academy sincerely appreciate your profound interest in our academy and application for enrollment in campus. It is with our deep regret to inform you that your offer was not reviewed and will not be in the future, as such you were not considered proper material for the academy. We, the staff, humbly thank you for your time and consideration and wish you the best of luck in the future you may pursue."_

After reading that letter for the first time, Hajime read it again , and again . He found himself compulsively skimming over the neatly printed font of the page relentlessly, like there must have been some kind of mistake, except there wasn't. The bottom line was that Hajime wasn't accepted into the school because he lacked talent.

This wasn't just your average everyday disappointment either, for Hajime it was equivalent to having your whole childhood completely destroyed in one fell swoop .

Adding insult to injury was that the only possible alternative to enrolling into Hope's Peak Academy was being placed in the The Reserve Course Department for non-Ultimate students to pay their way into receiving an education at the school. Well, maybe that's better than nothing? Except, it's not since the tuition fees were significantly high.

His father was a lawyer and hardly even made enough to cover the fees, however, somehow he agreed to paying for Hajime's tuition so long as he agrees to successfully graduate and pay him back the money sometime in the future.

Having admired Hope's Peak Academy for his whole life and being placed in the Reserve Course wasn't exactly ideal and the exact opposite of what he was expecting. It was the unfortunate hierarchy of society; those born with talents were destined to succeed in life while the rest were doomed to fall beneath them and forever be considered inferior in the eyes of the masses.

"...Now can somebody tell me what the answer to this exponent expression is?" the homeroom teacher—Sumiteru Seyama—asked waving his chalk around in such a boring and painfully white collar fashion.

He pointed his tiny piece of chalk at one of the students. "How about you , Hinata-san...are you able to answer this question?"

That was enough to bring Hajime back into reality and realized that he was daydreaming in the middle of class again. He only vaguely heard what the teacher had asked him and needed to come up with the best response possible, which only lead to more problems when he could hardly make sense of the problem.

Hajime looked over at the chalkboard and saw the problem read: " 2y 3 x 3xy 3 ÷ 3 " and he could hardly make sense of it in the slightest. He was never the smartest person whenever it came to math, especially since there were times when he would still struggle between the difference of a hexagon and octagon.

"Thirteen?" he guessed.

"That is incorrect. If you really don't know the answer, then I would recommend paying more attention," Sumiteru commented before returning back to his chalkboard.

"I have no clue." The designated delinquent of the classroom known as Taro Date answered with a sigh.

The pretentious class representative, Junichi Takata, was the first person to answer and raised his hand shouting: "The answer is two y to the power of the variable. Which you can find by dividing six and three to get two, then canceling out the common factors they share and subtracting six and four."

Junichi grinned at his chance of one upping everyone in the classroom, though Hajime couldn't help but wonder why the Reserve Course even needed to make such a big deal about having Class Representatives in the first place.

Fortunately the last bell of the day rang and saved Hajime from having to answer more questions. At least now he could think without having any distractions.

DING...DONG…

BING...BONG…

Sumiteru sighed and finally placed the piece of chalk down. "That's all for today. Tomorrow we'll continue going over the rest so make sure you are prepared for the next class."

Hajime sighed in relief and put all of his books in his messenger bag, taking a minute to finally be at ease after all of the boring lectures the teacher was giving him. All he could really think about right now was what the Main Course students were probably doing right now.

His thoughts were so cluttered with an amalgamation of things that he wasn't even paying attention to some of the things his other classmates were talking about. Hajime must have spaced out for a good few minutes because it felt like a lot of time had by the time that someone spoke to him again.

His thoughts were cut short by the voice of a girl talking to him. "Are you okay? You've been staring into space all day...hey, are you even listening!?"

Hajime recognized this girl from her long black hair and pale complexion as Sato Asuna. There still weren't too many people in the Reserve Course Department that he was even acquainted with yet and couldn't really pinpoint all too well. Was it because he didn't have any friends? Or maybe it was because the semester just began? Then again, it could've easily have been both.

He sighed. "Leave me alone."

Sato seemed to have been losing her patience as it was and firmly pressed her hands to her hips. "Look, I'm not gonna tell you again. How long are you gonna keep spacing out like that? Didn't you hear the teacher talk about that big announcement and to head to the gymnasium?"

"An announcement?" Hajime racked his brain trying to remember exactly when that happened. He must have been so busy thinking about the Main Course that he wasn't even paying attention. Further inspection showed that the other students had already left the classroom by now.

Sumiteru poked his head into the classroom, growing very impatient and irritable by the second. "What are you kids still doing here? Hurry up and get to the gymnasium for the announcement, now!"

"Yes sir." Hajime solemnly answered before grabbing his bag and following Sato to the gymnasium. Whatever it was that the faculty has been planning to announce, it must have been something major, mostly in part to the fact that the Reserve Course almost never had any big news.

The closest thing to news in the Reserve Course was the staff announcing the textbook shortage because of budget cuts, which was the most boring news that anyone would want to hear.

All the Reserve Course students had already gathered together, standing in a criminally neat row, the matching black suits they wore did nothing to make them stand out when compared to the Main Course students. Every student was dressed in the same outfits and were forced to bare the same tedious mannerism that made them look like they were mass produced in a factory.

Due to all the inane talking that was happening at once, Hajime almost didn't see there were four elderly men that all gathered together on the gym stage at once. Their presence was extremely overwhelming, all of them had different faces and physiques, yet they shared the common trait of being a bunch of "scary men in suits".

These four men looked suspiciously cooperate and definitely didn't match the squeaky clean and "Happiest Place On Earth" aesthetic that came from the Main Course.

Hajime wondered if he was just being too cautious, that was a bit of a habit for him. Perhaps it was better to just take things at face value and just go with it. If these guys had something to announce in the lackluster Reserve Course of all places, then it must be something really important.

Surprisingly enough, the shortest man with the gray ponytail and glasses was the first to step forward to the podium and pressed against the microphone loudly. "Students of the Reserve Course, I am Yamamoto Junpei, my colleagues and I are the entrusted members of the Steering Committee and have a very important announcement to make."

The Steering Committee? Hajime never heard that name before in his entire life, then again despite his love for the academy, he ironically almost never did his research on the school itself and hardly ever visited the websites or message boards.

Next to step forward to the microphone was the tallest amongst the four men, with black hair and tanned skin. "I am Nakazawa Jurobei. Like my fellow colleague here, I too am a member of the Steering Committee. As faculty of Hope's Peak Academy, it is with great privilege that we announce a project that has been in the works for several years by this point."

Another man—heavy-set with a bowl shaped hairstyle and glasses—stepped up to the microphone as the last one returned to the back of the stage. "My name is Sera Naoko, and for years we have diligently worked together with the Headmaster to ensure that our academy is a communal experience for all our young students. That is why it's with our pleasure that we introduce the Ultimate Cultivation Program."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Date nonchalantly asked. "What exactly does cultivation mean?"

Sato sighed. "Exactly how did you make it into the Reserve Course to begin with?"

Part of that confused Hajime as well, a supposed cultivation program was never mentioned once on the official website and he made sure to bookmark the page on his computer for regular updates. And what was this talk about making the academy a more communal experience? It felt like they were more focused on segregating both courses and creating an even bigger social barrier.

The following individual to appear on stage was the man with balding gray hair. "I am Nakazawa Jurobei and I am here to explain the Cultivation Program as well. It's quite simple, a single student of the Reserve Course will be handpicked from our committee and spend the next semester having your hidden talent discovered and nurtured. Additionally, you will be provided the opportunity to transfer into the Main Course."

That bait was enough to instantly draw the attention of Hajime. The opportunity to enroll into the Main Course? That's pretty much all he ever dreamed of and was having the chance without the need of getting scouted.

As all of the other elderly men presumably moved to the back of the stage, Hajime was left to assume this assembly had reached its closing, until another old man slowly walked over to the stage. The only difference was that this man looked considerably less corporate compared to the others, rather short in stature and slightly hunched over with upswept hair and glasses.

His bony hand thumped the microphone repeatedly to get the attention of the others and irritated the ears of everyone else. Hajime noticed that this other man seemed much eccentric as opposed to the others.

"Greetings and salutations young students of the Reserve Course, my name is Tengan Kazuo." the elderly man greeted. "As the four gentlemen before me had previously stated, Hope's Peak Academy is happy to announce that in the upcoming weeks, a single student will be chosen to study with Steering Committee."

It was difficult to make out what everyone was saying due to the large amounts of students all talking at once. One of which was a girl named Yamasaki Wakana who curiously shrugged her shoulders and asked, "Who is this guy supposed to be?"

"Beats me." Date replied.

"You've never heard of Tengan Kazuo?" Sato asked. "He was the headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy a long time ago. Even though he's stepped down as headmaster, I've heard that he's still the superintendent of the school."

Tengan continued speaking with a nod, "Like I was saying. The academy has decided to only select one student to be a part of this project and will not be accepting other students for the remainder of this semester."

"With that in mind, I genuinely commend that students do not feel a sense of discouragement if they are not chosen for this program. Because hope comes from people acting like people and normalcy is something that should not be fear—"

A couple of staff members of the school were quick to rush onto the stage and quickly grab the microphone from Tengan before he could keep talking and was escorted off the stage, one of which could be heard saying, "That was not on the script that we provided for you...that's all the time we have for today!"

All of the other students proceeded to begin speaking in large crows about their general opinion on the promise of being enrolled into the Main Course, that was a desire that all 2,359 students shared, it was practically the only reason they became a student in such a menial program in the first place.

Deep down Hajime felt the same as everyone else, maybe even immensely more than the other Reserve Course students, being that he would do just about anything to finally have an Ultimate talent. Not to mention that he would probably no longer have to pay the extremely high tuition fees for the Reserve Course Department anymore.

"Hey your name is Hinata isn't it?" Sato called out. "What do you make of what those guys were talking about?"

"What do you think of it?" Hajime questioned.

Sato sighed. "Those guys are obviously just trying to fork over more money from the Reserve Course, as if we didn't give them enough money to begin with."

Hajime blinked—of course there was still a large part of him that was extremely interested in this supposed cultivation program they were speaking of. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally have a chance to discover what his talent could possibly be and even have the chance of becoming someone he was proud of like he always dreamed.

Except with all of this optimism fresh in his mind, that only meant that pessimism was quick to follow. Maybe what Sato said was right and Hope's Peak Academy was simply exploiting students for money and were very likely to not even considering actually giving them the same opportunities.

And in the midst of all that, all that Hajime could start thinking about were the voices of all the people who shunned him for enrolling in the Reserve Course. Maybe it was impossible for someone of his caliber to be accepted into society as an Ultimate?

"Yeah...you're probably right." Hajime admitted. "Cultivation program, my ass. They're probably just trying to get more money for the academy."

He left in the opposite direction as everyone else in order to give himself time to think about things. Truthfully, he wasn't completely against the idea of having having his talent discovered and receiving the opportunity to enroll in the Main Course. After all, that was pretty much his dream since the very beginning and would do just about anything to finally have a talent like he always wanted.

* * *

After class had ended, Hajime needed to give himself time to take into account all of the information that he'd been given about the Hope Cultivate Program and consider all of his tangible options: the ability to have his hidden "talent" discovered and offered the chance to enroll into the academy was a dream, as a matter of fact in almost felt too good to be true.

What was the deal with the The Steering Committee in the first place? Was it true that they were really help out the Reserve Course students by providing them with equal opportunities as the Ultimates or was there something they were telling them.

Hajime scoffed, yeah right . Knowing him this was just another display of his pessimism showing itself, he'd always been referred to as a pessimist by his peers because of his habit of thinking critically about things.

He lacked the foggiest clue how The Steering Committee would ever be able to help someone like him receive a talent since he lacked talent at anything: Sports? While not the worst at sports he couldn't compare to a professional athlete. Art? All he could really draw were stick figures. Cooking? Only if cup gokubuto counted as knowing how to cook?

It was impossible to turn someone like him into a talented person.

To make himself feel a little better, Hajime decided to convince himself that the committee was just an excuse on the schools part to take more money out of the talentless students pockets and grabbed his messenger bag.

As early into the year it was, it seemed like most of the other Reserve Course students had other plans after school, though Hajime never really got to a point where he actually made friends with anyone in the school and also didn't want to just stay cooped up in his dormitory all day. To compensate for this, he'd been hanging out at the arcade until sunset mainly as an outlet to kill time before going home.

Hajime was further from being a gamer as someone possibly could, although there have been some occasions where he played them in his downtime. Recently, he'd been relentlessly been playing this game known as Gala Omega throughout a lot of his free time and admittedly wasn't the best at it.

Maybe because it was a retro game or something? No matter how hard he tried to make it past the first few stages, he would always fail, today being no different, putting his coin in the machine and grabbing hold of the joystick.

**Gala Omega**

**© Spike Chunsoft 1984 LTD All Rights Reserved**

The routine was drastically the same every time he would play Gala Omega: during the first stage, as the first few spaceships started aiming their projectiles at him, it was easy to steer the starfighter in the right direction and dodge the first few ships.

He could make it through the second and third stages with hardly any difficulties, things really only started to take a turn for the worse around the fourth stage when the number of ships began to increase and it was even harder to dodge the ships that came closer to him.

Regardless of how many times he attempted to dodge the ships, he could never even make it to the fifth stage. Hajime continued again and again in the hope that he could finally progress through this game and beat Gala Omega, his wallet becoming noticeably lighter with every constant loss.

For some reason, losing this game proved analogous to his own circumstances. After doing everything he could to finally enroll in Hope's Peak Academy, it still wasn't enough and society still regarded him as someone without a talent.

In the back of his mind, Hajime could still remember the things people said before enrolling into the school as clear as day. How they would talk behind his back if he was truly an exceptional student to even be worthy of being accepted or being picked on for supposedly being so "rich" that he could just buy his way into the academy.

It was futile even trying to defend himself. All Hajime could do was stare out the window to pretend that he wasn't listening or couldn't hear them, enduring all the insults that his classmates would fire at him.

To everyone in the world —unfortunately including himself—Hajime was universally identified as "just a normal guy who can be found anywhere".

"Damn it!" Hajime yelled and slammed his fist against the arcade machine. Of course, losing the game had nothing to do with any of this and was simply the tip of the iceberg of what had been bothering him, it just reminded him of his other failures to enroll into the main course of Hope's Peak Academy.

Hajime was just about to grab his messenger bag and head home before getting stopped in his tracks by someone's voice, "Hey Hey. You probably should've taken the chance to get a double ship, you probably would have one that way."

He turned around to see that a girl, significantly shorter than he was, with light pink hair and a hoodie was standing right behind him. She lightly tugged at the strap of her drawstring bag and eyed the arcade machine.

Her appearance alone caught Hajime off guard, normally none of the people in the arcade even bothered to talk to him—the again, rarely anyone talked to him to begin with. He double taked and looked to the girl. "What...did you say?"

The pink-haired girl answered by walking over to the arcade machine and pointed a finger to the screen. "In Gala Omega, if your ship gets captured, that means you can receive a second one, which really helps in boosting the amount of points that you gain."

A smirk of amusement appeared on his face, not out of genuine happiness but more of intrigue that someone actually pointed that out. Normally, most of the customers who stepped foot in this arcade were casual fans that hardly knew anything about retro gaming, and admittedly Hajime was one of those people.

"You sure know a lot about Gala Omega," Hajime acknowledged. "Are you a fan?"

This pink-haired was filled to the brim with sheer excitement as she tightly clenched her petite hands, closely stood on her tiptoes, and breathing heavily. "Yes I am! I'm a huge fan! It's an all time favorite of mine and I've even speedran the game five times in a row!"

She froze and realized how overly excited she was getting, instantly tossing the hood over head head again melancholily. "I mean...sorry. I guess I got a little carried away."

"Yeah, no kidding!" Hajime chuckled. "I'm guessing that means you're a pretty big fan of video games, right?"

She nodded, notably slower than a regular person would. "Yeah. Video games are my life and I'm pretty much a fan of all genres—even games that are crappy."

The two exchange laughs together and Hajime felt it was the first time he ever truly laughed since he was accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, although their enjoyment amounted to that "contrived" type of laughter that two friends share when they pretend something is funnier than it really is, he still felt at ease to finally have the opportunity to talk about something that wasn't just his lack of talent.

All of that talking was interrupted when some lunatic—some woman with orange hair wearing an apron—came zipping through the arcade at full speed and accidentally knocking down an entire magazine rack.

"What the!?" Hajime gasped.

This woman caused a whole commotion of angered employees and confused customers looking at her, not that she minded, quickly dusting off her apron and looking the pink-haired gamer girl in the eyes. "Nanami-san, I finally found you! I'll admit you're quite the elusive girl, but nothing I couldn't handle!"

"You were looking...for me?" the pink-haired girl questioned.

The woman flipped through some kind of book until pressing her finger against a particular page and brightly smiling. "Yep, the book never lies! Your name is Nanami Chiaki and you're the Ultimate Gamer of Hope's Peak Academy!"

"You're a student from Hope's Peak Academy?" Hajime gasped. He was so engrossed in the arcade game that he failed to notice that this girl was dressed in the brown Hope's Peak Academy uniform with a few of her own custom additions like a cat ear hoodie and backpack.

"Am not." Nanami casually denied and continued staring at her blank handheld like she were busy.

"Nope, you definitely are. I've done my fair share of research on you!" the orange haired woman responded with a smile. "My name is Yukizome Chisa and I'll be your homeroom teacher for the 77th Class this semester."

She offered her hand to Nanami. "C'mon, you don't wanna keep your other classmates waiting right? Let's head back to our classroom and we can get started with the year."

Nanami uncomfortably started to back away and was prepared to decline her offer. At least until the manager of the arcade furiously walked over to Yukizome. "What the hell did you do to my store!? I hope you were intending on paying for this!"

The Ultimate Housekeeper nervously chuckled and finally noticed that she knocked down an entire shelf of gaming magazines on the ground. "Whoops, sorry! Do you accept cash or credit?"

As Yukizome went to the cash register to sort, Hajime couldn't help but laugh at the predicament before sadly smiled and inexplicably stared at his palm. "Ultimates students are a lot different than I expected, but even so, they're still so lucky and talented. If only...I could have a talent too."

"Is that really true?" Nanami shrugged. "Having an Ultimate talent isn't all the hype."

"What do you mean?" Hajime questioned.

"I'm a little jealous of you. Not being an Ultimate means that the world won't expect you to be really good at one thing for the rest of your life." Nanami calmly admitted. "You have the opportunity to pursue anything in the world that you want."

"...the school says that I'm the Ultimate Gamer by obligation, but I never wanted to be. It's not like I'm a professional gamer or anything, I always just kinda liked them as a hobby." she yawned.

As crazy as it may have sounded, Hajime had never even tried to view things from that perspective before, in his eyes it always seemed like Ultimate students were essentially the equivalent to celebrities or superheroes that were capable of doing everything.

It was the life that Hajime that dreamt of having for as long as he could remember. Not for the reason that someone would normally think, fame and fortune weren't necessarily on his mind when regarding his dreams of talent, instead something more personal —the desire to become someone he could be proud of.

He agreed on keeping his inner monologues between himself. What was the point of burdening a total stranger with his life story?

Yukizome swung back with a stack of gaming magazines all in her hand. "I'm back! I didn't expect how many of these magazines I was gonna be forced to pay for...but hey! I guess I've got something to read on a rainy day."

"Ready to go back, Nanami-san?" the orange haired woman asked. Despite the teachers eagerness about heading back to class, the Ultimate Gamer didn't exactly share that same enthusiasm and simply continued playing her handheld console.

This woman shrugged and somehow was able to carry a pile of magazines and grabbed Nanami and had her slung over the shoulder. "I better get her back to class, I hope that I wasn't intruding on anything too important."

* * *

Chiaki was not fully prepared for what was awaiting her and mostly went back to the classroom with Yukizome because of how feisty the teacher was. Next thing she knew, the Ultimate Gamer found herself standing in front of a classroom with fourteen other students were staring her straight in the eyes.

She hadn't the slightest idea on how to approach this situation. Back when she was a student at St. Elbandia Academy, she had skipped school so many times that introductions were completely unnecessary. Chiaki complied and respectfully bowed in front of them all, the same way that she had always been taught.

"I'm Nanami Chiaki, the Ultimate Gamer. Video games are my hobby, and I'm a fan of all genres...nice to meet you."

The pink-haired gamer raised her head up and looked along to all of the eyes that were watching her. She suddenly wished that Yukizome didn't somehow talk her into giving an introduction to the entire class because now she was probably going to start critiquing her social skills.

Togami interrupted the awkward silence and pulled his glasses up. "The pleasure is all mine, Nanami. With all of that said I must condemn your tardiness and failure to attend class meets up to this point. I would strongly prefer that you not make this a habit and squander the name of Class 77-B."

"Geez Togami! Why are you being so hard on Chiaki-chan, it's only the first week?" Koizumi groaned.

Komaeda tried to relieve the tension with some contrived laughter. "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to agree with Koizumi-san about this one. Nanami-san is still a new student like the rest of us, so we should excuse her absence just this once."

Hanamura grinned and flirtatiously held up his two fingers. "Well, I'm just glad to have another female in the class. Frankly, there were far too many kielbasas in this deli~ if you catch my drift!"

"Kielbasa?" Sonia innocently blinked. "I am not quite sure I understand."

"And it's honestly better that you don't." Koizumi rolled her eyes.

"If I may ask, exactly how does this all align with our tutelage in 77 th Class?" Pekoyama questioned.

"Yes, I was about to ask the same question." Tanaka added before pointing his two-ringed finger at the teacher. "You there, She-devil ! I demand to know what your intentions of imprisoning us in this realm! Otherwise I am going to release my untethered power from my cursed arm and turn this fortress into ash."

Mioda winced and held her head, "Yikes! Ibuki just gave herself a headache trying to make sense of what Gundam-chan just said. Did anybody get that?"

"I'm assuming he wants to know when things will get underway." Togami sighed.

Yukizome eagerly nodded, "Right, of course! Now that all of our students have gathered together that means we can finally start this semester off strong."

"Luckily enough, there's still a desk available for you, Nanami-san. If you would, please feel free to take your seat." the housekeeper said and pointed towards the back of the classroom where Chiaki would be sitting for the rest of the semester. She complied and sat in the back next to the muscular guy that she assumed was Nidai and strangely enough, an empty desk was to her left.

The Ultimate Gamer simply shrugged. It was probably just an extra desk or something, though she could have sworn that the other classes apparently had sixteen students.

Her pink eyes peeked over to the front of the class where she saw that Yukizome had gone from underneath her desk and brought out a cardboard box. "In order to commemorate your joyous entry into the school, I have a little something for you all…"

Yukizome reached into the box and started passing along small holographic devices for each of the students. The last person to receive one was Chiaki who examined her tablet and saw that "Hope's Peak Academy e-Handbook" were written in the upper right hand corner.

"An e-Handbook?" Koizumi asked and held the device in her hands like a camera. "What are these supposed to be?"

Komaeda examined his e-Handbook as well and contemplatively placed a finger to his chin. "If I were to guess, then I'd say this is probably a digital version of the official handbook of Hope's Peak Academy."

"And you guessed correctly! The e-Handbooks were invented this semester by our staff here at Hope's Peak to make the communal experience on campus much more enjoyable for everyone." Yukizome smiled.

"I understand. These devices will include the rules that we must follow while here." Sonia nodded. "I must admit, these are much more advanced than anything we have in the Kingdom of Novoselic and I may have difficulty getting used to these."

"Sonia-san! May I call you Sonia-san!? No, I insist on calling you that!" Soda frantically blurted out. "If you're ever in need of help with how to use the e-Handbook then I would be thrilled to be the person to teach you!"

"Forgive me, but can you please remind me what your name was?" Sonia innocently asked. The Ultimate Mechanic was left humiliatingly speechless and left to wonder how he was even supposed to respond to that.

"Are you friggin' serious!?" Owari's jaw dropped upon reading one of the rules. "The cafeteria is closed after 9:00 pm! That's crazy!"

Togami of all people surprisingly nodded in shock. "For once, I'm going to have to agree with you. I'm unable to cope with such ludicrous living conditions."

"These things are supposed to help us live more communal lives as students?" Koizumi noted in disbelief. "Exactly how is that supposed to work?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Yukizome nodded and presented her very own marigold colored e-Handbook. "These handbooks now include new features for students, like letting you access the schools official website and let's you take pictures."

"OOOOOHMYYYYYGOOOOOOSSHHH! This thing can actually take pictures too!?" Mioda squealed in excitement and wasted absolutely no time to start taking an abundance of snapshots of herself. "Ibuki is totally making it her goal to take pictures of everybody in the whole school!"

"If you motherfuckers even think about snapping pictures of me, I'll bury you six feet under!" Kuzuryu warned.

"Ibuki likes those odds! Challenge accepted!" the Ultimate Musician grinned.

"Feel free to count me out of those. I've never been much of a picture person, they're always kind of embarrassing." Komaeda lightheartedly chuckled.

"You meant to tell me something so small is actually capable of taking pictures!?" Soda excitedly blushed and pulled a screwdriver out of his clothes to start tinkering. "I've gotta find out what makes this thing tick!"

"See, looks like you guys are becoming friends already! Guess there's nothing like technology to bond the youth together." Yukizome joyfully stated and placed her hands on the desk. "But I digress, now that all of the students have gathered together it means we can set aside from important ground rules that will help us see eye to eye."

"What kind of rules?" Nidai questioned.

The housekeeper held up her index finger to indicate the number one. "Rule number one! All students are required to attend classes five days a week. No ifs, ands, or buts about it!"

"I suppose that rule sounds fair enough, it definitely gives everyone the initiative to attend class everyday if it means it's against the rules to miss any days." Komaeda calmly acknowledged.

"Tch, screw that!" Kuzuryu rolled his eyes. "That rule can go fuck itself, there's no way in hell I'm gonna act friendly and shit with you idiots all year long."

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm just gonna follow her rules. Last thing I need is another machete in my desk." Soda frustratedly groaned and looked at the permanent stab mark in his desk.

"I-I think I understand...but what if someone were to get sick...or accidentally gets mud thrown at them...or is the target for darts?" Tsumiki started listing.

"That's rather specific, but I suppose we can always make exceptions." Yukizome replied and held out another finger. "Rule number two! Homeroom starts at 7:30 a.m and all students should be present and accounted for at that time!"

"That's crazy! You expect me to wake up early in the morning just for a stupid class!?" Saionji gasped. "But it takes me ten minutes just to tie by obi!"

"Show some spirit! Anything is possible if you put your mind to it! Waking up early isn't difficult as long as you eat a balanced dinner, do light exercises before bed and shower in cold water!" Nidai loudly encouraged.

"That should not be difficult for me. In my country it is only customary that adolescents wake up at dawn before the coq come out." Sonia pointed out.

"...The what?" Soda double-takes.

"My apologies. I believe in other regions they are referred to as roosters." the Ultimate Princess corrected herself.

And finally her third finger raised up. "And the third and final rule is that everyone is required to have fun this semester!

"I believe all of these rules sound quite fair." Togami crossed his arms and nodded. "With these it should be much easier for all students in this class to have a communal life together."

"Wow, talk about being a teacher's pet!" Saionji teased.

The Ultimate Affluent Progeny smirked. "Call me what you may, though I for one refuse to let a classroom affiliated with the Togami Clan falter because you skinny types didn't put any effort in things."

Yukizome continued, "Look...I know the rules say that you can leave whenever you want, but there's so much more to life than talent. Youth only comes once and now is the perfect time to build character with your classmates and create fond memories that you'll look back at."

There's more to life than talent? Chiaki never really gave too much thought about things like talent since she never even wanted to be the Ultimate Gamer to begin with and was mostly forced into attending this school because her family wanted to "broaden her horizons" and her to "become a successful young woman".

Besides, all that talk that Yukizome said about making friends and enjoying their youth was impossible for a person like her—someone who never made any friends in her previous schools. How could someone like her even befriend someone when she didn't even know where to start.

All things considered, Chiaki felt she didn't grow a little closer to any of her classmates.

She shrugged her shoulders and quietly snapped a picture of herself with the e-Handbook. This would be the smart of her first day at the school that would change her life.

* * *

A/N: We finally were introduced to Hajime and Chiaki in this series. Hajime is particular was pretty interesting because in this chapter we get to see him in the Reserve Course and how boring and uninterested it feels compared to the 77th Class in addition to seeing the Hope Cultivation Program first announced.

I did have to add a few OC characters so that Hajime's time in the Reserve Course wouldn't be totally barren, but don't worry, none of the original characters will have a huge significance in the plot at all and are mostly just here to be background characters.

In this series the Steering Committee isn't being completely honest with Hajime and the others students, making them believe the Cultivation Program is just some kind of "sweepstakes" where one talentless student will be allowed to enroll in the Main Course, which is very obviously far from the truth.

I did this on purpose since the Izuru Kamukura Project and Izuru himself are supposed to be kept secret from a large majority of the academy and even the DR1 survivors didn't a lot of knowledge about it.


End file.
